MESSAGIO GALORE take XI
a duration of sound poetry & similaria
edited & etceteraed by jwcurry for the combined auditoria of
jwcurry Alastair Larwill Georgia Mathewson Brian Pirie
& special guest Gary Barwin
at the Niagara Artists Centre, 7:3o PM 19 october 2o12
354 Saint Paul Street, Saint Catharines
__________________________________________________
part 1
1. The Multiples, Steve McCaffery (Canada, 1981); source: transcription by Rob Read (Canada, 2o11?) from a recording by McCaffery. a multiplicity of mispronuncimicated masticatiums of eaneming; a study in contrasts between what you seam to be hearing & what you here are seeming to be. readers: curry, Mathewson
2. SIX-FOUR, Alastair Larwill (Canada, 2o1o); source: unpublished manuscript. accumulative disintegrational polysyllabicism formulated as an audio illustration in a discussion of articulational deliberateness with its dedicatee, Rob Read. full quartet
3. A Letterklankbeelden Poem, I.K.Bonset (Holland, 192o); source: Imagining Language An Anthology, edited by Steve McCaffery & Jed Rasula (2nd ed, Cambridge, USA, MIT Press, 2oo1). with line lengths mainly one letter long, Bonset – among other things a type designer – was simultaneously & independently investigating Raoul Hausmann's notion of optophonetics in basic typeforms & diacritics. terse. solo
4. " breath is ", bill bissett (Canada, 1966?); source: bill bissett, fires in th tempul OR TH JINX SHIP ND OTHR TRIPS (Vancouver, Very Stone House, 1966). one of bissett's concrete scattertexts, here divided into a duo demonstration of the logic inherent in his more radical field compositions. readers: curry, Larwill
5. Againful Deployment, jwcurry (Canada, 1981?); source: monograph (Ottawa, 1cent, 2oo1). a "sound poem for an assemblyline of voicings" spiralling outta the conch into yr cochnea. full quartet
6. " kp'erioUM lp'erioum ", Raoul Hausmann (Germany, 1918); source: IL COLPO DI GLOTTIDE la poesia come fisicità e materia, ed.Luciano Caruso, Henri Chopin, Laura Marcheschi & Steliomaria Martini (Firenze, Vallecchi, 198o). an excellent type specimen ofHaumann's optophonetic texts: "the poem is an act consisting of respiratory and auditive combinations, firmly tied to...duration", all conveyed through letters in space. solo
7. East Wind, bpNichol (Canada, 1979?); source: Four Horsemen, The Prose Tattoo (Milwaukee, Membrane Press, 1983). a gridtext deployed through overlaid extended breathlines, vowels blowing consonants all over the place. full quartet
8. anacyclic poem with two shouts DHARMATHOUGHTS STUPAWARDS, dom sylvester houédard (England, 1966); source: KROKLOK ⌗1 (ed.dom sylvester houédard, London, UK, Writers Forum, 1971). "for the artists protest committee for their call from losangeles for a tower against the war", an anagrammatic poem in 3 vowels & 4 consonants. readers: curry, Mathewson
9. WELTWEHE, August Stramm (Germany, 1914); source: KROKLOK ⌗3 (ed.dom sylvester houédard, London, Writers Forum, 1972). Stramm's scope is nothing less than cosmic in this, his most extreme narrative composed almost exclusively of verbs, seemingly fuelled & shaped by the battlefields he wrote in & the ciphers he wired his poems home through. solo (with apologies for hopelessly anglo pronuncimicatiums)
1o. KNOTS, jwcurry (Canada, 1982?); source: The (Almost) Instant Anthology '88, ed.Beverley Daurio, Daniel Jones & bpNichol (Toronto, Meet The Presses, 1988). excerpts from a "translation into concrete poetry" of R.D.Laing's lineated neuroses trackings, subsequently unreknotted & strung out as schizologue for 2 voices. readers: Larwill, Mathewson
11. roses that, d.a.levy (USA, 1966); source: UKANHAVYRFUCKINCITI BAK, ed.Robert J.Sigmund (Cleveland, Ghost Press, 1968). "for gene" (presumably Fowler), a cyclic concrete poem in linear form pumping ackackfire into the imperialism of politics/semantics. solo
12. SIZERZ, Steve McCaffery (Canada, 1976); source: THE CAPILANO REVIEW ⌗31 (ed.Steven Smith & Richard Truhlar, North Vancouver, 1984). severe elemental hocketing coupled with ordered layerings subjected to consistent randomizations. full quartet
13. CANZONE RUMORISTA cantata in coro sui teatri d'Italia in ANICCAM del 2000, Fortunato Depero (Italy, 1916?); source: as 3 above. Depero's optophonetic procedure is here more regularly regularly multilineated, one of but 2 of the texts thus far found from his suite of unknown size (more information on this fellow would be highly appreciated). solo
14. TOTEM ÉTRANGLÉ, Antonin Artaud (France, 1964?); source: KROKLOK ⌗2 (ed.dom sylvester houédard, London, Writers Forum, 1971), with reference to Antonin Artaud/trans.Helen Weaver, Selected Writings (New York, Farrar Straus And Groux, 1976). "For years I have had an idea of the consumption, the internal consummation of language by the unearthing of all manner of torpid and filthy necessities." (Artaud in a letter to Henri Parisot, 22 september 1945). 18 of these sound cycles excised (by Artaud) from elsewhere in his writings (Here Lies; Insanity and Black Magic; The Return of Artaud, Le Momo; To Have Done with the Judgement of God; Van Gogh, The Man Suicided by Society) & formally linked as a suite. full quartet
part 2
15. Calling The Vegetable Collected, jwcurry (Canada, 2oo8); source: monograph (2nd ed, Ottawa, 1cent, 2oo8). hocketed statements that build multiple syntactic paths as the fragments first cohere, then disintegrate. full quartet
16. AGATHA! WAKE UP! I'M CURED!, Richard Beland (Canada, 199-?); source: unpublished manuscript. Beland's language lines are as plastic as his visual lines, this short prose morphing from sense to sound to resense with every step. solo
17. Scraptures: 12th Sequence, bpNichol (Canada, 1967?); source: photocopy from TORONTO LIFE (issue # & editor unknown, Toronto, 1968). & on the 12th "day", humanity stuck its heads up from the muck & goo, took a look around in its state of ignorant grace, & knew but lustful fear. arrangement dedicated to Jan Svankmeyer. full quartet
18. A Little Valentine, Steve McCaffery (Canada, 1977); source: Steve McCaffery, research on the mouth (Toronto, Undrwhich Editions, 1978?), transcribed & arranged by jwcurry & Sheena Mordasiewicz (2o12). a trystcycle built for 2 interpenetrates itself to become a relentless rush toward simultaneous climax. readers: curry, Larwill
19. Pieces Of Stop, bpNichol (Canada, 1978); source: as 7 above. "for Greta Monach", an extremely literal approach to the score that casts the reversed expectations of its sound envelopes into stark relief. ull quartet
2o. DAS GROSSE LALULA, Christian Morgenstern (Germany, 189o?); source: as 8 above. one of Morgenstern's few ventures outside semanticism into "phonetic rhapsody", an entry in the Galgenleider cycle & one of the earliest poems acknowledged as constructed on purely sound principles (KROKLOK, the magazine dedicated to the documentation of sound poetry's history, takes its name from the poem's 1st 2 syllables). solo
21. THE MAN IN THE LOWER LEFT HAND CORNER OF THE PHOTOGRAPH, Mike Patton (USA, 1995); source: Mike Patton, ADULT THEMES for Voice (New York, Tzadik, 1996), transcribed by jwcurry (2oo7). a solo construction for voice & tape recorder, the transcription (& reading) attempts to semireplicate the extreme edits, abruptions & machine stresses of the collage original. solo
22. auf dem land, ernst jandl (Austria, 1968?); source: konkrete poesie deutschsprachige autoren, ed.eugen gomringer (reprint? Stuttgart, Philipp Reclam, 198o). an "utter zoo" octupletted & here arranged as simultaneous nouns'n'sounds. readers: curry, Larwill
23. sounds' favorite words, Paul Haines (Canada, 1986), as quoted in full in an extract from Haines' Jubilee; source: Paul Haines, Secret Carnival Workers (Toronto? H Pal Productions, 2oo7), with reference to Michel Contat's reading on Haines' DARN IT! (USA, American Clavé, 1994). hijacked as an interdiction of manysorts. Jubilee ends "Unrelatedly, there was a recital of whisk the morning of 17 July after a night the cats had raised hell on the front lawn, a group of robins fallen by the side of the hedge as though meeting on a street corner and – now headless to prove it – plumb run out of things to say, but still prettier representations of events than the sparrows the exact size of erasers stacked up with the heads on. // Which of course are words apart." solo
24. The Tibetan Memory Trick, traditional/arranged by Howard Kaylan, Ian Underwood & Mark Volman (USA, 1974); source: Flo & Eddie, ILLEGAL, IMMORAL AND FATTENING (Canadian pressing, Columbia Records Limited, 1975). everyone in the band gets put through this one for articulational, breathing & body memory development. spontaneously inserted between the 2 parts of 23 above. full quartet
25. THREE/FOUR: OF TIME, bp Nichol (Canada, 1985); source: 5e echanges internationaux de poesie contemporaine, ed.Julien Blaine (Tarascon, France, L'A.G.R.I.P.P.A., 1988). the 3rd in Nichol's TIME series "for the 4 Horsemen", this one targetting the structure of the waltz for vigorous interrogation. full quartet
26. IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE, Frank Zappa (USA, 1964); source: Mothers Of Invention, FREAK OUT! (USA, Verve Records, 1965), transcribed & arranged by jwcurry (2oo7). a somewhat remented barberchopping routine that only seems to leave metre & tonality behind, part 2 of Help, I'm A Rock, featuring Georgia Mathewson as Suzy Creamcheese ("Suzy you were such a sweetie"). full quartet
27. BALLADS OF THE RESTLESS ARE, bpNichol (Canada, 1967?); source: monograph (2nd ed, Ottawa, Curvd H&z, 2oo6). "two versions/common source" of elemental theme & variations presented as comparative simultaneity in a "quartet for 2 voices". readers: curry, Larwill
28. Salmon River Soliloquy, David UU (Canada, 1973); source: David UU, High C (Toronto, Underwhich Editions, 1991). a rather straightforward poem siding with the fishes. solo
29. MUSHY PEAS, Steve McCaffery & bpNichol (England, 1978); source: Steve McCaffery & bpNichol, IN ENGLAND NOW THAT SPRING (Toronto, Aya Press, 1979). 6 pages of drawn optophonetics as visual ground for improvisation, tonight's take a "no-net" event. readers: curry, Larwill
3o. Sweet suite suet, ernst jandl (Austria, 197o?); source: STEREO HEADPHONES ⌗4 (ed.Nicholas Zurbrugg, Kersey, UK, 1971). the syllables of jandl's lyric poem trip in & out of step with receptibility, accruing a kind of polysemantic reality just this side of the pataphysical. solo
31. Oiesautal / Super-Bird-Song, Raoul Hausmann (France, 1918?) & Kurt Schwitters (England, 1946?), respectively; source: Raoul Hasmann & Kurt Schwitters, PIN and the story of PIN (London, UK, Gaberbocchus Press, 1962). brought together by the 1st world war & separated by the 2nd, both friends independently came to write short works based on birdsound. this interlineated arrangement by curry (2oo9?) is a step toward A Visit to the Aviary, a short suite of related material from various sources. readers: curry, Pirie
32. GLASS ON THE BAECH, Richard Truhlar (Canada, 1978?); source: Owen Sound, Beyond The Range (Toronto, Underwhich Editions, 198o), transcribed by curry from a trio (Michael Dean, Steven Smith, Richard Truhlar) recording at The Music Gallery in Toronto, 18 august 1979, with additional parts adapted from 2 manuscript scores courtesy of Truhlar. extended vocal waveforms with buried shards. full quintet with Gary Barwin
__________________________________________________
front cover: bpNichol, BALLADS OF THE RESTLESS ARE
rear cover: ernst jandl, auf dem land
with thanks to Gregory Betts, Jenny Kimmerly &, above all, the band
__________________________________________________
see also:
announcement by Natasha Pedros
photographs by Pearl Pirie:
M/L/c/P a brief pause with Suzy Creamcheese
Mathewson/Larwill/curry/Pirie/Barwin Glass On The Beach
MESSAGIO GALORE take XI
a duration of sound poetry & similaria
edited & etceteraed by jwcurry for the combined auditoria of
jwcurry Alastair Larwill Georgia Mathewson Brian Pirie
& special guest Gary Barwin
at the Niagara Artists Centre, 7:3o PM 19 october 2o12
354 Saint Paul Street, Saint Catharines
__________________________________________________
part 1
1. The Multiples, Steve McCaffery (Canada, 1981); source: transcription by Rob Read (Canada, 2o11?) from a recording by McCaffery. a multiplicity of mispronuncimicated masticatiums of eaneming; a study in contrasts between what you seam to be hearing & what you here are seeming to be. readers: curry, Mathewson
2. SIX-FOUR, Alastair Larwill (Canada, 2o1o); source: unpublished manuscript. accumulative disintegrational polysyllabicism formulated as an audio illustration in a discussion of articulational deliberateness with its dedicatee, Rob Read. full quartet
3. A Letterklankbeelden Poem, I.K.Bonset (Holland, 192o); source: Imagining Language An Anthology, edited by Steve McCaffery & Jed Rasula (2nd ed, Cambridge, USA, MIT Press, 2oo1). with line lengths mainly one letter long, Bonset – among other things a type designer – was simultaneously & independently investigating Raoul Hausmann's notion of optophonetics in basic typeforms & diacritics. terse. solo
4. " breath is ", bill bissett (Canada, 1966?); source: bill bissett, fires in th tempul OR TH JINX SHIP ND OTHR TRIPS (Vancouver, Very Stone House, 1966). one of bissett's concrete scattertexts, here divided into a duo demonstration of the logic inherent in his more radical field compositions. readers: curry, Larwill
5. Againful Deployment, jwcurry (Canada, 1981?); source: monograph (Ottawa, 1cent, 2oo1). a "sound poem for an assemblyline of voicings" spiralling outta the conch into yr cochnea. full quartet
6. " kp'erioUM lp'erioum ", Raoul Hausmann (Germany, 1918); source: IL COLPO DI GLOTTIDE la poesia come fisicità e materia, ed.Luciano Caruso, Henri Chopin, Laura Marcheschi & Steliomaria Martini (Firenze, Vallecchi, 198o). an excellent type specimen ofHaumann's optophonetic texts: "the poem is an act consisting of respiratory and auditive combinations, firmly tied to...duration", all conveyed through letters in space. solo
7. East Wind, bpNichol (Canada, 1979?); source: Four Horsemen, The Prose Tattoo (Milwaukee, Membrane Press, 1983). a gridtext deployed through overlaid extended breathlines, vowels blowing consonants all over the place. full quartet
8. anacyclic poem with two shouts DHARMATHOUGHTS STUPAWARDS, dom sylvester houédard (England, 1966); source: KROKLOK ⌗1 (ed.dom sylvester houédard, London, UK, Writers Forum, 1971). "for the artists protest committee for their call from losangeles for a tower against the war", an anagrammatic poem in 3 vowels & 4 consonants. readers: curry, Mathewson
9. WELTWEHE, August Stramm (Germany, 1914); source: KROKLOK ⌗3 (ed.dom sylvester houédard, London, Writers Forum, 1972). Stramm's scope is nothing less than cosmic in this, his most extreme narrative composed almost exclusively of verbs, seemingly fuelled & shaped by the battlefields he wrote in & the ciphers he wired his poems home through. solo (with apologies for hopelessly anglo pronuncimicatiums)
1o. KNOTS, jwcurry (Canada, 1982?); source: The (Almost) Instant Anthology '88, ed.Beverley Daurio, Daniel Jones & bpNichol (Toronto, Meet The Presses, 1988). excerpts from a "translation into concrete poetry" of R.D.Laing's lineated neuroses trackings, subsequently unreknotted & strung out as schizologue for 2 voices. readers: Larwill, Mathewson
11. roses that, d.a.levy (USA, 1966); source: UKANHAVYRFUCKINCITI BAK, ed.Robert J.Sigmund (Cleveland, Ghost Press, 1968). "for gene" (presumably Fowler), a cyclic concrete poem in linear form pumping ackackfire into the imperialism of politics/semantics. solo
12. SIZERZ, Steve McCaffery (Canada, 1976); source: THE CAPILANO REVIEW ⌗31 (ed.Steven Smith & Richard Truhlar, North Vancouver, 1984). severe elemental hocketing coupled with ordered layerings subjected to consistent randomizations. full quartet
13. CANZONE RUMORISTA cantata in coro sui teatri d'Italia in ANICCAM del 2000, Fortunato Depero (Italy, 1916?); source: as 3 above. Depero's optophonetic procedure is here more regularly regularly multilineated, one of but 2 of the texts thus far found from his suite of unknown size (more information on this fellow would be highly appreciated). solo
14. TOTEM ÉTRANGLÉ, Antonin Artaud (France, 1964?); source: KROKLOK ⌗2 (ed.dom sylvester houédard, London, Writers Forum, 1971), with reference to Antonin Artaud/trans.Helen Weaver, Selected Writings (New York, Farrar Straus And Groux, 1976). "For years I have had an idea of the consumption, the internal consummation of language by the unearthing of all manner of torpid and filthy necessities." (Artaud in a letter to Henri Parisot, 22 september 1945). 18 of these sound cycles excised (by Artaud) from elsewhere in his writings (Here Lies; Insanity and Black Magic; The Return of Artaud, Le Momo; To Have Done with the Judgement of God; Van Gogh, The Man Suicided by Society) & formally linked as a suite. full quartet
part 2
15. Calling The Vegetable Collected, jwcurry (Canada, 2oo8); source: monograph (2nd ed, Ottawa, 1cent, 2oo8). hocketed statements that build multiple syntactic paths as the fragments first cohere, then disintegrate. full quartet
16. AGATHA! WAKE UP! I'M CURED!, Richard Beland (Canada, 199-?); source: unpublished manuscript. Beland's language lines are as plastic as his visual lines, this short prose morphing from sense to sound to resense with every step. solo
17. Scraptures: 12th Sequence, bpNichol (Canada, 1967?); source: photocopy from TORONTO LIFE (issue # & editor unknown, Toronto, 1968). & on the 12th "day", humanity stuck its heads up from the muck & goo, took a look around in its state of ignorant grace, & knew but lustful fear. arrangement dedicated to Jan Svankmeyer. full quartet
18. A Little Valentine, Steve McCaffery (Canada, 1977); source: Steve McCaffery, research on the mouth (Toronto, Undrwhich Editions, 1978?), transcribed & arranged by jwcurry & Sheena Mordasiewicz (2o12). a trystcycle built for 2 interpenetrates itself to become a relentless rush toward simultaneous climax. readers: curry, Larwill
19. Pieces Of Stop, bpNichol (Canada, 1978); source: as 7 above. "for Greta Monach", an extremely literal approach to the score that casts the reversed expectations of its sound envelopes into stark relief. ull quartet
2o. DAS GROSSE LALULA, Christian Morgenstern (Germany, 189o?); source: as 8 above. one of Morgenstern's few ventures outside semanticism into "phonetic rhapsody", an entry in the Galgenleider cycle & one of the earliest poems acknowledged as constructed on purely sound principles (KROKLOK, the magazine dedicated to the documentation of sound poetry's history, takes its name from the poem's 1st 2 syllables). solo
21. THE MAN IN THE LOWER LEFT HAND CORNER OF THE PHOTOGRAPH, Mike Patton (USA, 1995); source: Mike Patton, ADULT THEMES for Voice (New York, Tzadik, 1996), transcribed by jwcurry (2oo7). a solo construction for voice & tape recorder, the transcription (& reading) attempts to semireplicate the extreme edits, abruptions & machine stresses of the collage original. solo
22. auf dem land, ernst jandl (Austria, 1968?); source: konkrete poesie deutschsprachige autoren, ed.eugen gomringer (reprint? Stuttgart, Philipp Reclam, 198o). an "utter zoo" octupletted & here arranged as simultaneous nouns'n'sounds. readers: curry, Larwill
23. sounds' favorite words, Paul Haines (Canada, 1986), as quoted in full in an extract from Haines' Jubilee; source: Paul Haines, Secret Carnival Workers (Toronto? H Pal Productions, 2oo7), with reference to Michel Contat's reading on Haines' DARN IT! (USA, American Clavé, 1994). hijacked as an interdiction of manysorts. Jubilee ends "Unrelatedly, there was a recital of whisk the morning of 17 July after a night the cats had raised hell on the front lawn, a group of robins fallen by the side of the hedge as though meeting on a street corner and – now headless to prove it – plumb run out of things to say, but still prettier representations of events than the sparrows the exact size of erasers stacked up with the heads on. // Which of course are words apart." solo
24. The Tibetan Memory Trick, traditional/arranged by Howard Kaylan, Ian Underwood & Mark Volman (USA, 1974); source: Flo & Eddie, ILLEGAL, IMMORAL AND FATTENING (Canadian pressing, Columbia Records Limited, 1975). everyone in the band gets put through this one for articulational, breathing & body memory development. spontaneously inserted between the 2 parts of 23 above. full quartet
25. THREE/FOUR: OF TIME, bp Nichol (Canada, 1985); source: 5e echanges internationaux de poesie contemporaine, ed.Julien Blaine (Tarascon, France, L'A.G.R.I.P.P.A., 1988). the 3rd in Nichol's TIME series "for the 4 Horsemen", this one targetting the structure of the waltz for vigorous interrogation. full quartet
26. IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE, Frank Zappa (USA, 1964); source: Mothers Of Invention, FREAK OUT! (USA, Verve Records, 1965), transcribed & arranged by jwcurry (2oo7). a somewhat remented barberchopping routine that only seems to leave metre & tonality behind, part 2 of Help, I'm A Rock, featuring Georgia Mathewson as Suzy Creamcheese ("Suzy you were such a sweetie"). full quartet
27. BALLADS OF THE RESTLESS ARE, bpNichol (Canada, 1967?); source: monograph (2nd ed, Ottawa, Curvd H&z, 2oo6). "two versions/common source" of elemental theme & variations presented as comparative simultaneity in a "quartet for 2 voices". readers: curry, Larwill
28. Salmon River Soliloquy, David UU (Canada, 1973); source: David UU, High C (Toronto, Underwhich Editions, 1991). a rather straightforward poem siding with the fishes. solo
29. MUSHY PEAS, Steve McCaffery & bpNichol (England, 1978); source: Steve McCaffery & bpNichol, IN ENGLAND NOW THAT SPRING (Toronto, Aya Press, 1979). 6 pages of drawn optophonetics as visual ground for improvisation, tonight's take a "no-net" event. readers: curry, Larwill
3o. Sweet suite suet, ernst jandl (Austria, 197o?); source: STEREO HEADPHONES ⌗4 (ed.Nicholas Zurbrugg, Kersey, UK, 1971). the syllables of jandl's lyric poem trip in & out of step with receptibility, accruing a kind of polysemantic reality just this side of the pataphysical. solo
31. Oiesautal / Super-Bird-Song, Raoul Hausmann (France, 1918?) & Kurt Schwitters (England, 1946?), respectively; source: Raoul Hasmann & Kurt Schwitters, PIN and the story of PIN (London, UK, Gaberbocchus Press, 1962). brought together by the 1st world war & separated by the 2nd, both friends independently came to write short works based on birdsound. this interlineated arrangement by curry (2oo9?) is a step toward A Visit to the Aviary, a short suite of related material from various sources. readers: curry, Pirie
32. GLASS ON THE BAECH, Richard Truhlar (Canada, 1978?); source: Owen Sound, Beyond The Range (Toronto, Underwhich Editions, 198o), transcribed by curry from a trio (Michael Dean, Steven Smith, Richard Truhlar) recording at The Music Gallery in Toronto, 18 august 1979, with additional parts adapted from 2 manuscript scores courtesy of Truhlar. extended vocal waveforms with buried shards. full quintet with Gary Barwin
__________________________________________________
front cover: bpNichol, BALLADS OF THE RESTLESS ARE
rear cover: ernst jandl, auf dem land
with thanks to Gregory Betts, Jenny Kimmerly &, above all, the band
__________________________________________________
see also:
announcement by Natasha Pedros
photographs by Pearl Pirie:
M/L/c/P a brief pause with Suzy Creamcheese
Mathewson/Larwill/curry/Pirie/Barwin Glass On The Beach